AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



a living, to pay rent, wages (unless he and his 

 family do all the work, in which case this item is 

 included in a living), wear and tear on machin- 

 ery and normal returns on permanent investments. 



It is true, certainly, that, at any given time, 

 there are those who are producing at a loss, others 

 who are just able to make both ends meet, and 

 still others, and ordinarily this class includes 

 the vast majority, who are able to make an extra 

 profit because of their superior ability. This will 

 be easily understood if we refer to the figures 

 which are available showing the cost of producing 

 maize. 1 From the figures published by the Illinois 

 Experiment Station, it is possible to compile a 

 list showing the variations in the cost of produc- 

 ing maize, which list shows that in the vast ma- 

 jority of the cases reported the cost of producing 

 the maize was far below the market price. The 

 items included under costs are: breaking stalks, 

 plowing, disking, harrowing, rolling, planting, 

 cultivating, husking, seed maize, and rent. The 

 numbers are averages for counties; but as the 

 average number of returns per county was not 

 more than four, the process of averaging by no 

 means eliminated the variations, and the figures 

 show wide differences in the costs of producing 

 maize. 



The following figures show the costs, per 



1 Bulletin No. 50 of the Illinois Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, Table i. 



216 



